Roadway Safety and Energy Development

2014 Traffic Safety Conference May 12-14, 2014

San Antonio, Texas

David Bierling, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

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The past decade has seen substantial growth in U.S. (domestic) energy development.

Much of it is due to a combination of horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing (‘fracking’) in shale formations that hold oil and gas.

Some states also have extensive wind energy developments.

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TTI Policy Research Center Currently investigating best practices and lessons-learned about how DOTs are managing impacts from oil, gas, and wind developments on roadways in ...

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Top eight (8) energy producing states

Colorado Kansas North Dakota Oklahoma Pennsylvania Utah West Virginia Wyoming

Types of impacts analyzed

Finance Maintenance Safety Environmental

Research is on-going, discussion today is on preliminary results for these states.

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Energy Development (EDev) and roadway traffic1

• EDev is often concentrated in rural/agricultural areas • Local infrastructure & networks designed for low traffic volumes • Can also affect urban areas

• EDev is associated with rapid increases in population

• EDev affects roadway traffic and driver characteristics: • Specific types of vehicles (heavy trucks) and

drivers (younger, male)

• EDev activity is difficult to predict

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Truck traffic and energy supply chains

Source: Prozzi, Grebenchiskov, Banerjee, and Prozzi (2011). Impacts of Energy Developments on the Texas Transportation System Infrastructure. Center for Transportation Research, University of Texas.

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EDev and roadway traffic

• EDev can require over 1,000 truck trips to develop and fracture a single well: • Site and well installations

• Large/heavy construction and rig equipment • Access roads

• Well operations - millions of gallons of water/chemical/sand mixture per well • Freshwater input • Saltwater output

• Resource extraction – crude oil trucks • Additional truck trips for refracturing the well

• Timing?? • Equivalent to millions of passenger cars

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Roadway safety issues • Roadway condition • Roadway design • Congestion • Commercial vehicle operations • Driver behavior

• Surface condition (e.g., rutting, spalling, cracking)

• Structural integrity • Road base • Bridges

• Contamination • Mud • HazMat/

chemicals

• Signage

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Roadway conditions

Photo by D. Bierling, Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

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Roadway conditions before, during, and after intensive energy development

activity in Bradford County, Pennsylvania (Christie, 2012)

Roadway conditions

August 2009

March 2010

November 2010

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Roadway design

• Lane width & shoulder width • Number of lanes • Access road/driveway entrances • Structure (pavement/base thickness) • Signalization

Photo by D. Bierling, Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

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Congestion

Photo by D. Bierling, Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

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Roads which previously had less than tens or hundreds

of trucks per day now have hundreds or thousands

of trucks per day

Photo by D. Bierling, Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Chart source: Bierling, Jasek, Martin, and Mendez (2013). Hazardous Materials/Truck Traffic Study: Central Eagle Ford Shale Region, Texas. Prepared for the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Local Emergency Planning Committees in the Eagle Ford Shale Region.

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Commercial vehicle operations

Types of violations include: • Vehicle maintenance

• Brakes • Suspension • Tires • Frames

• Hours of service

• Oversize/Overweight

• Hazardous materials

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Driver behavior

• Accidents • Some (but not all) states experiencing increases

in heavy truck crashes

• Aggressive driving • Impaired driving

Photo by D. Bierling, Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

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Commercial vehicle violations

Examples from Pennsylvania State Police

• Timeperiod: April 1 to June 7, 2010 Roadside inspections: 400 industry trucks

56% driver or vehicle placed out of service for serious safety violations (Cook, 2010)

• Timeperiod: January 2010 to June 2011 Roadside inspections: 5,800 industry trucks

13,000 driver and vehicle safety [combined] violations, including 2,800 serious safety violations that placed

the driver or truck out of service (Schmitz, 2011)

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How are eight other state DOTs addressing safety issues?

• Prevention • Increasing weight/load restrictions for roads and bridges

(some states) • Educating industry and public (some states)

• Partnering • Bonding/road use maintenance agreements (some states) • Commercial vehicle and traffic enforcement (all states) • Industry-agency collaborations/coalitions (some states)

• Maintenance and construction (all states) • Resurfacing and rebuilding • Widening roads and shoulders • Adding turning lanes

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DOT challenges in addressing energy development impacts

• Informational • Data on traffic, future developments not shared by industry • EDev partners may not understand seasonal road impacts • Changes in markets, locations difficult to predict

• Spatial – scale of impact may be a few counties, or entire state

• Resources – Financial • Revenue sources • Transportation appropriations

• Resources – Personnel • Labor shortages/ability to pay

• Organizational • Headquarters/District • Proactive/Reactive

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Summary

• EDev can have substantial benefits for communities, landowners, states, and industry partners

• EDev can also result in transportation system impacts, including on traffic safety

• Extremely complex relationships between industry, market, regulatory, development, and infrastructure, and demographics

• Other states/DOTs vary in how they are addressing EDev impacts on transportation systems

• Planning for growth and associated impacts on local communities and states can be challenging, but is very important

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Thank you!

Contact info: Dr. David Bierling Associate Research Scientist Texas A&M Transportation Institute Email: dhb@tamu.edu Phone: 979.862.2710